the same thing. that does it for us tonight. we'll see you again tomorrow night. now time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell. have a good one. tonight, mitt romney has finally taken a definitive position on mousetraps. >> they told me you all were fired up. they were right. >> the intensity of the conservative side of politics is now stronger than the liberal. >> the -- this election will be closer than the last one. that we can count on. >> the battle of the bundlers. >> the mad cash for campaign cash. >> the cash dash. >> romney and the lnc outraise the president. >> team romney is outflanking that of team obama. >> mitt romney appears to have bested the president. >> they were raking it in in

texas last night. >> texas is the home of republican money. >> bringing in nearly $77 million last month. >> outdistancing the $60 million raised by president obama and the dnc. >> we're going to get this done. >> any time an elected official challenges a core constituency, we should pause and give them credit. >> falling off message for the republicans. >> smack in the face of mitt romney. >> he doesn't have the courage to do that. >> mitt romney is presiding over a republican party that's drafted too far to the right. >> i'm not sure i would have been successful as a candidate. >> governor romney, his position changes by the day. >> almost like an etch a sketch. >> flip flopped on almost everything. >> top ten subject lines of mitt romney's e-mail. number eight, reminder, it's been over a month since you purchased a cadillac. number six, 20% off at beach house car elevators.com. number three, it's newt -- are you getting my messages? today in missouri, mitt

romney rose in support of better mousetraps. >> where our vision believes in ingenuity of the american people. his vision trusts the wisdom of political appointees and boards and commissions and czars. it's a world of federal mandates and waivers, tax credits, subsidies, federal grants, loan guarantees. business models based on building a better mousetrap will give way to those who seek the right mix of government subsidies and waivers and loan guarantees. >> the world that mitt romney says he now fears with its government subsidies and empty factories is one that helped mitt romney make hundreds of millions of dollars while serving as chief executive of bain capital. romney was enriching himself through government subsidies back when president obama was still in law school. bloomberg reports that companies owned by the firm received millions of dollars in benefits

from a variety of state and local government economic development programs. today president obama had a real governing issue on his mind when he spoke in nevada where the latest polling shows him ahead of mitt romney by only two points. the president highlighted his fight with the republican house of representatives to take action to prevent student loan interest rates from doubling. >> they voted to give an average tax cut of at least $150,000 to every millionaire in america, but they want you to pay an extra thousand dollars a year for college. doesn't make any sense. it's wrong. america is about more than just protecting folks who have already done well. it's about giving everybody a chance to do well. it's about hard work and responsibility being rewarded. it's about everybody having a chance to get ahead and then reach back and help somebody behind you so that everybody has a chance. that's what makes us strong.

>> and today the obama campaign released a new ad that will appear on television in the nine swing states. >> we're still fighting our way back from the worst economic crisis since the great depression. our businesses have created almost 4.3 million new jobs over the last 27 months, but we're still not creating them as fast as we want. >> the president's jobs plan would put teachers, firefighters, police officers and construction workers back to work right now. and it's paid for by asking the wealthiest americans to pay a little more. but congress refuses to act. >> a new national poll of likely voters shows president obama and mitt romney in a virtual tie. president obama polls at 47%, one point ahead of romney's 46%. and according to a new poll of likely voters in 12 swing states, the states most likely to decide the presidential election, president obama polls at 48%, only two points ahead of romney's 46%. joining me now is msnbc's

krystal ball and ari melber. krystal, this race has tightened up. people are always saying it will titlen up, it will tighten up, this is the tightened race. it looks like we may go in this virtual tie one or two points separating them from now until november. >> yeah, i think that's right. there are a couple of thins that i think are causing the tightening. and one is the tightening economic numbers. what's happening in europe? will the economy slow down in summer like it has in past summers? or will we continue to see some improvement? it's normal after a candidate secures their party's nomination, there is a little bit of a bump. so i think we're seeing that for romney as well, but no question it's tight. things look a little better when you look just at the swing states as you were pointing out. one thing i'd highlight for you in that purple poll as well, they ask the question do you believe private equity helps the worker or hurts the economy?

voters were more likely to say that private equity hurts workers versus helping the economy. so that message is actually effective and, as you would expect, it was particularly effective in the midwest states like ohio and pennsylvania. >> a republican presidential campaigns have always liked to use fear. for decade in the cold war they were using fear of the soviet union. in the last decade, they were using fear of al qaeda. and mitt romney has found a new fear for the voter to think about and that is, of course, government under president obama. let's listen to what he said about that. >> it will soon effectively control the majority of america's economic activity. i mean, you have to ask yourself, will we still be a free enterprise nation? >> no. >> and whether we'll still have economic freedom is in question. america is on the cusp of having a government-run economy. that's where he's taking us. >> fear for their economic

freedom, ari melber, can mitt romney convince 51% to fear for their economic freedom? >> well, he can try, and i think he's seizing on some of the energy that's out there and the energy, frankly, that was more aligned with other candidates like the tea party concerns and libertarian concerns. on the facts, if we can do a quick fact check, he's not accurate in saying that the economy is moving towards a majority government control, we do know what state economies look like in that part of the world and we don't have that structure and we don't have that tax code either, although there were periods long ago under conservative presidents where we had higher tax rates. i don't think that really wash. i disagree with the way that krystal put it, i don't think that romney got a great bounce but the discomfort with him has faded. his ratings were in the high 50s and they dipped back below 50% largely because he's consolidated republicans.

that's vital for him, because even if it's a referendum election on obama, he's got to have something like half the country not disliking him. >> one thing on this, lawrence, government-run economy thing, this line for romney is actually not totally new. i don't know if you remember in the presidential -- in the republican primary debates, he repeatedly said this thing of we're only inches away from country not disliking him. >> one thing on this, lawrence, government-run economy thing, this line for romney is actually not totally new. i don't know if you remember in the presidential -- in the republican primary debates, he repeatedly said this thing of we're only inches away from losing our free market economy. and that was a statement that politi fact gave him three pants on fire ratings for because he kept saying it. that's very much an echo of that same logic which is obviously clearly false. >> ari, when he talks about this massive government expansion that will take away our economic freedom, the only expansion of

government of any kind during the obama administration has been the health care bill which hasn't taken full effect yet, not even close to full effect. we have seen the romney health care bill, which is virtually identical, take full effect in massachusetts already, so presumably massachusetts, because of governor romney, has already lost its economic freedom. >> yes. it's a test case of his most dire warnings. the irony, of course, for the people who follow policy, as everyone knows, that the approach in the health care bill was traditionally a heritage foundation principle, by lowering the age and option were not included in obama-care. there is a great irony or frustration in dealing with folks who want to attack it when in fact it was compromises with them that really a made it more of a regulation of private industry in insurance, not a new government program. the last point on that is that

mitt romney was basically a banker, he was an investor, and he knows, and you ask any investor whether they want the fed involved or prosecutors involved in regulating the financial markets, of course they do. they don't necessarily want government taking over the stock market and with the exception of the auto bailouts, in most cases, that's not what's on the brink in the united states, but you need government and rules and prosecutors if you want to have free markets. so this is a very tendentious argument. >> krystal, what explains team fund-raising? >> well, i think the hedge fund crowd is very sad. they have had their feelings hurt. so they are no longer giving to the president in the way that they did when he was candidate obama. and i put it that way because it can't be based on the economic circumstances. i mean, corporate profits have been at record highs and that

has been led by the financial services industry. so it's not like the president has been bad for their business, but they feel sad and they feel like their feelings were hurt, so now they've gone to the other guy. that's the only rationalization i can come up with. >> their feelings are hurt, but they still have plenty of money to give. >> absolutely. >> krystal ball and ari melber, thanks for joining me tonight. >> thanks, laurence. >> what does mitt romney have in common with muhammad ali? exactly one thing. and what does mitt romney have in common with me? exactly one thing. the answer to both of those questions is in tonight's rewrite. and imagine the neighbor from hell and the neighbor from hell has secret service protection. mitt romney's new california neighbors at his beachhouse will join me. they are a gay couple that mitt hasn't met yet. and the obama campaign is having trouble with some of its surrogate speakers, but not with its most popular surrogate speaker, michelle obama. that's coming up. [ male announcer ] this is the at&t network. a living, breathing intelligence

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mitt romney supports sending our kids off to war but not his own kids. mitt romney avoided service in the military during the war of his era, the vietnam war. he asked for and obtained a draft deferment through an unconstitutional process that at the same time refused to give the same draft deferment to muhammad ali. and now mitt romney pretends that he was willing to serve in vietnam. mitt romney rewrites mitt romney once again in tonight's rewrite. that's coming up. and mitt romney's new neighbors are here tonight, a gay couple with an ocean view that might be ruined by mitt romney's building plans for his new beachhouse. they'll tell you what life on romney street is really like. that's coming up. [ male announcer ] what's in your energy drink?

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power surge, let it blow your mind. [ male announcer ] for fruits, veggies and natural green tea energy... new v8 v-fusion plus energy. could've had a v8. the president has flatly said he would veto any extension of the bush tax plans. >> i know he has. >> for individuals making more than the $00,000 a year. >> i support his position, and i think on the merits upper income people are going to have to contribute. i'm very sorry about what happened. >> that was bill clinton on cnn this afternoon, but obama re-election senior strategist david axelrod says no apology is necessary. >> i'm not asking for an apology from bill clinton. i have deep admiration for bill clinton. i watch this parade of republicans saying, oh, we got to listen to bill clinton. they should listen to bill

clinton. bill clinton understands what it takes to grow this economy. he understands that we can't cut our way to prosperity. he understands that we have to bring these deficits down in a responsible way. there's no separation between him and this president. they have the same understanding of how you grow the economy. >> you want him to go out there and campaign. >> he's a tremendous asset to us. i have no compunction about that. >> joining me now are howard dean, former vermont governor, and former chairman of the democratic national committee, and howard fineman, editorial director of the huffington post media group and an msnbc contributor. howard dean joining us from vermont. i'm told there's going to be a little bit of a delay in our audio between what you say and what i hear here in los angeles and what goes back to headquarter in new york and out to tvs. i want to warn the audience

about that. but howard dean, what is the campaign asset value of bill clinton as of tonight? >> oh, his asset value is enormous. and that's why the republicans are attacking. you know, this is really -- i've seen this so often during campaigns. this is something the media fell for. this is a republican spin. they know they don't know anybody that can match bill clinton popularity or competence, and so they spin this stuff out and the media falls for it sometimes. this is a case of pat journalism, media and silliness. clinton continues to be one of the biggest asset in the pain. you'll see a lot of him. eventually the media will move on to some other pac story. nobody looks good in this except bill clinton and barack obama. >> howard fineman, are the republicans making a mistake in helping to draw attention to bill clinton? because that just cues him up for his next media appearance where he can say something devastating about the republicans.

>> no, not necessarily. i think i probably should speak up for pac media, bad journalism and silliness. >> yes. >> and lord knows governor dean knows i'm capable of it, but i think that bill clinton's a mixed blessing for barack obama. i agree with governor dean that bill clinton can be a fantastic advocate, that he's incredibly articulate and believable. and is still in some ways the captain emeritus of the democratic team. but there have been a few occasions so far where bill clinton has complicated things for the white house. and even there in the clip with wolf blitzer where he apologized for his statement on taxes, the president said, well, i agree with the president on the merits. now, i've listened to clinton speak for a long time, and what that means is that bill clinton thinks the politics are wrong but the substance of what the president is saying is right. in other words, bill clinton thinks that politically the

president would be better served to punt for a while and extend the tax cuts. that's how i read it. and that's how sophisticated observers of politics will read it as well. >> let's listen to another odd note that came out from the democratic side. if you just hold on for a second. i want to listen to what our friend ed rendell said this morning to charlie rose about hillary clinton. let's listen to this. >> you supported hillary clinton strongly. >> sure. >> do you think we'd be in a different place if she'd been elected? >> i think she would have come in with more experience. the president was hurt by being a legislator only. health care and stimulus, two bills that i think did good things for the american people, too much was left up to to congress. he said here's my plan, you guys flesh it out. hillary clinton would have sent them a bill and said, here's what i want. >> do you want to remind ed rendell that hillary clinton did

sbeend send a health care bill to the congress and say, this is what i want. >> yes. >> and she couldn't even get it to come to a vote in the house or the senate. couldn't even get a vote from the house and senate. >> yeah, i would say ed was misremembering history a little bit there. >> yes. >> that's exactly what hillary clinton did. and one of the reasons that president obama tried to get the congress to do more was because he was trying to learn from the mistake in the clinton administration on health care. look, this is not what's going to win the election or lose the election. this is silliness. what's going to win the election is this -- if president obama successfully tags romney with somebody you can't trust on the economy, which they believe, and if he manages to push that message, he wins. if mitt romney successfully tags obama with he mismanaged the economy, then romney wins. i think the president's got to

continue on the line that he's taking. you cannot trust mitt romney to care about you, and most people believe in fact that mitt romney doesn't care about them. that's the line you've got to stick to. and all this other stuff is fluff and it's because it's the summer and there's not enough going on. after the turn in september, you won't hear much of this stuff any more because people won't write about it and they won't put it on television. >> howard fineman, i want to run a press theory by weekly standard" thinks he knows what bill clinton is up to. he says bill clinton is very much in control with respect to 2012. he wants barack obama to lose and is helping that cause. an obama re-election loss would leave clinton as the only twice-elected democratic president since fdr. and therefore, the only successful one. howard? >> i think bill kristol's a smart guy. i don't take anything he says

about bill clinton seriously. he understands dan quayle, who he used to work for. he understands the neo cons -- he understands the neocons and hee understands the publications he writes for. he's a smart guy and a nice guy. he doesn't have a clue as to bill clinton's psychology. and i do. because i've covered bill clinton up close since he came in to politics. bill clinton wants barack obama to get re-elected. is bill clinton magnificently conflicted because he's bill clinton? would he also like to see his wife get elected some day? yes. but not at the expense of defeating barack obama, i don't believe that for a second. >> howard dean and howard fineman, the two howards. thank you very much for joining me tonight. >> thank you. >> thanks a lot. coming up, mitt romney's new neighbors in california are worried that his rebuilding his beachhouse and having secret service crawling all over the place will ruin the neighborhood.

two of mitt romney's new neighbors a gay couple he has not yet met, will join me tonight. and in the rewrite, what mitt romney did during the war of his era, vietnam, the story of mitt romney and the draft and muhammad ali and the draft. and me and the draft. that's coming up. [ male announcer ] if paula ebert had her way, she would help her child. go! goooo! [ male announcer ] with everything. but instead she gives him capri sun super-v. with one combined serving of fruits and vegetables. new capri sun super-v. holding down the fort while you're out catching a movie. [ growls ]

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tonight mitt romney once again rewrites mitt romney. this time on the choices he made during the vietnam war. and one of those choices was the same choice muhammad ali made. mitt romney and muhammad ali are in tonight's rewrite.

that's coming up. it's interesting to me, you as first lady, you have an approval rating of 85, 90%. >> it's not that high. ♪ spread a little love today ♪ ♪ spread a little love my way ♪ ♪ spread a little something to remember ♪ [ female announcer ] fresh milk and real cream makes philadelphia and the moment

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>> it's not that high. >> through the roof. >> you exaggerate. >> but it is. your approal rating is like you're ice cream. your husband is not ice cream, it's vegetables. >> who needs bill clinton when you have michelle obama, president obama's most popular surrogate speaker is the first lady who made her second campaign stop today in the battleground state of virginia. mrs. obama proudly ran down a list of her husband's accomplishments, particularly those affecting women. >> it's now easier for women to get equal pay for equal work. and that's because of the first bill my husband signed in to law. that was the lilly ledbetter fair pay act. for barack, protecting women's health is a mission that has nothing to do with politics. >> in a new fund-raising letter mailed out this week based on her campaign speech, mrs. obama makes the political, personal and writes about the struggles the president's grandmother faced in the workplace.

mrs. obama writes, even though barack's grandmother worked hard to support his family, even though she was good at her job she hit that glass ceiling. men, no more qualified than she was, were promoted up the ladder ahead of her. so believe me, barack knows what it means when a family struggles. joining me now is nia-malika henderson reporting for "the policies too much. michelle obama seems to have the perfect touch when she does talk policy, she has a tone that makes them seem nonpartisan. >> that's exactly right. she is, as you said, a perfect surrogate. who needs bill clinton who has been widely off message, when you have michelle obama? she in some ways is a better surrogate for his husband's policy than her husband because she is able to marry the personal, his background story, with the political. and you know, this wasn't always easy for the first lady. when she came in, there were some -- you know, some

stumbling. in 2010, they very much want heard to be out there on the stump. she wasn't as comfortable being out there. she wanted to in some ways save up her political for her husband. and we see her using it quite effectively, with women voters. that's something she did in 2008, she'd have roundtables with women voter. she got the nickname the closer because she was so effective at turning voters who weren't decided in terms of backing her husband, turning them around and having them support her husband. so i'm sure she's going to be out there quite a lot. >> well, she has outraged rush limbaugh. i know that will surprise us all. he is outraged that she even considered going on the "ellen degeneres show" never mind just going on the show. let's listen to what crazy rush had to say. >> can you see laura bush going on the ellen show and doing push-ups on the floor with a lesbian tv host? or with a hetero-host? it doesn't matter.

doing it with oprah. can you imagine with gayle king? >> nia-malika, watching the sick mind of rush work in realtime, after he said the lesbian thing he realized, oh, wait, am i objecting to the lesbian or the push-ups? and you can see him have to adjust accordingly. but he's got 18 million listeners in the course of his show, all of whom are energetic at this point no doubt supporter of mitt romney. >> and you think that ellen degenerous and stephen colbert and jay leno, she has very much embedded herself into popular culture. she's now a pop culture icon. and with that, she can obviously forward the president's agenda, democratic policy. so it's been a very clever strategy that they've had for her. initially she was very much known for her fashion and she said she didn't want to be trapped in that bubble of just being known as a fashion icon. so she's broadened her platform to all of these different areas. exercise for kids, eating

vegetables. she's been incredibly effective and i think she'll be very effective in terms of fund-raising as well. there's a big gap there. so i think they'll use her that way as well. >> nia-malika henderson, thank you very much for joining me tonight. >> thank you. >> coming up, it's not just the car elevator that's making mitt romney's new neighbors on the california coast upset. two of them, a gay couple whose ocean view may be ruined by romney's new house, will join me. and what does mitt romney have in common with muhammad ali? that's next. mitt romney's new california neighbors are not exactly thrilled to have him in the neighborhood. he makes a lot of noise and he wants to rebuild his house so that it will block the ocean view of some of his neighbors including a gay couple who will join me to tell us what life with the new neighbor is really .

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mitt romney's new california neighbors are not exactly thrilled to have him in the neighborhood. he makes a lot of noise and he wants to rebuild his house so that it will block the ocean view of some of his neighbors including a gay couple who will join me to tell us what life with the new neighbor is really like. and next, in the rewrite, mitt romney's hypocritical view of war. he supports war and warmaking as long as no one in his family ever has to put on a military uniform and go into combat. mitt romney and muhammad ali are coming up in tonight's rewrite. shut the front door. right? woop-woop! franklin delano! [ male announcer ] hey! there's oreo creme under that fudge! oreo fudge cremes. indescribably good. ♪ home of the brave. ♪ it's where fear goes unwelcomed... ♪ and certain men...

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in tonight's rewrite, what does this guy have in common with this guy? that's right. nothing. but they once had one thing in common. each man tried to use his religion as the reason he should not be drafted in to military service during the vietnam war. mitt romney had no problem doing that because the mormon church established a special relationship with the selective service administration which aloud the church to designate young men like romney as exempt from the draft while they did temporary service of a couple of years trying to convert people to mormonism. the mormon church was the only religion that was allowed to do that. it was an obvious constitutional violation of the separation of church and state, and it provoked more than one federal lawsuit that dragged through the courts and became moot when president nixon ended the draft

in 1973. in order for a member of any other religion to get a so-called minister of religion deferment, he would have had to commit his life to a ministry, not just a couple of years. muhammad ali sought the exact same deferment as mitt romney, but the selective service refused to honor his claim of being a black muslim minister. drafted then under his birth name of cassius clay, muhammad ali stood on principle and refused induction in to the military, a federal crime then punishable by five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. muhammad ali was convicted of that crime and was spared a prison sentence pending the appeal of his case, which he en states supreme muhammad ali's stance against the draft was a principled stance. it was logically and morally aligned with his principled opposition to the vietnam war. muhammad ali said, i ain't got no quarrel with them viet cong.

muhammad ali was right, america didn't have a quarrel there. muhammad ali was smarter than the president of the united states, muhammad ali was smarter about vietnam than henry kissinger who had tricked a gullible news media into thinking he was a genius, and muhammad ali was brave enough to face the consequences of his principled stance. he was willing to lose income, to lose his boxing career, to lose his freedom, to go to prison for his beliefs as were many other brave and principled young men of that era. mitt romney on the other hand effortlessly hid from military service in france protected by the unconstitutional arrangements his church had with the selective service. and of course, the romney history here does not involve a matter of principle. the mitt romney who was hiding out in france while muhammad ali was facing the wrath of the federal court system and a prison sentence is the same mitt romney who as freshman in

college while hiding behind the college deferment from the draft participated in a demonstration in favor of the vietnam war. mitt romney was in favor of young american men his age being drafted and sent to their deaths in vietnam as long as he wasn't one of them. needless to say, romney hates being asked about what he did in the war of his era. and this campaign season a compliant press has not been asking him about it. it is, of course, relevant because we live in a time of war once again, a time that sometimes feels like it could turn into an era of permanent war, and mitt romney is very, very much in favor of war. >> governor romney, was the war in iraq, a good idea and worst the blood and tresh yu we have spent? >> it was the right decision to go into iraq. i supported it at the time, i support it now. >> but of course that does not mean that mitt romney supported any of his five sons actually

serving in that war that he supported or any other war. romney men don't go to war. mitt romney's father didn't, mitt romney didn't, and his sons didn't. in august of 2007 in a defensive response as to why his sons did not serve in the military in the iraq war, mitt romney said one of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping me get elected. he actually said that. romney men support war. they support wars that other people have to fight. mitt romney's father was in favor of the vietnam war before he was against it, after having claimed famously to have been brainwashed by generals on vietnam. mitt romney has never come close to telling the truth about his relationship to the vietnam war. this is the lie that mitt romney told the last time he was running for president in 2007. i really don't recall thinking about the political positions when i was knocking at the door in france. there were anti-vietnam war

protests in france while mitt romney was there. the french fought the vietnam war before we did. we took over from the french. the vietnam war was covered by the french news media every single day that mitt romney was in france. and romney went on to say, i was supportive of my country. i longed in many respects to actually be in vietnam and be representing our country there. there was not a single able-bodied man who in any respect longed to be in vietnam who was denied a chance to go to vietnam. not one. and romney says -- he says there that he wanted to go to vietnam to represent our country. meaning what? he wanted to be the ambassador? my friends and family members who went to vietnam were not representing their country. they were just trying to survive. they were trying to stay alive in a war that they all quickly learned we could not win. romney also said in 2007, quote, in some ways it was frustrating not to feel like i was there as

part of the troops that were fighting in vietnam. frustrating not to feel like i was there? well, he could feel like he was there a few years later if he went to see "apocalypse now." every man who lived through the vietnam era who was at least of high school age at some point during the vietnam era, knows that mitt romney is lying in every word of that statement. every american who went to vietnam knows that every able-bodied man of draft age who didn't join the military made an active choice not to join. but the same mitt romney who said he kind of sort of wishes he'd gone to vietnam also said, quote, when my dad said that he had been wrong about vietnam and that it was a mistake and they had been brainwashed and so forth, i certainly trusted him and believed him. so there's mitt romney saying he believed his father when his father turned against the vietnam war. and that at least consistent

with something romney said when he was 23 years old and in the fifth year of his deferment from the draft. then the same mitt romney who had demonstrated in favor of the draft, in favor of the war said, if it wasn't a political blunder to move into vietnam, i don't know what is. so there's mitt romney in effect agreeing with muhammad ali, that we didn't really have a fight with the vietcong. in his first interviews about this back in 1994 in his first political campaign, mitt romney told "the boston herald," i was not planning on signing up for the military. it was not my desire to go off and serve in vietnam. now there's none of that, i wish i'd gone to vietnam stuff in that statement. he sounds like me in that statement and most of the people i knew at the time in that statement romney now takes his place among the many, the countless, supporters like rush limbaugh who has been, like me,

afraid of participating in combat themselves. by the time my number was about to come up in the draft, president nixon ended the draft. so i never had to follow muhammad ali's brave footsteps into federal court. i live like most people, like most men in fear of combat. all of my friends and relatives who have gone into combat are braver than me, and i know it. and i freely and publicly acknowledge it. i pay them the public respect of being braver than i am. and knowing that i would never be willing to go in to combat myself, like most americans and like most american men, afraid to go into combat, i have never advocated anyone else going into combat at any time. i have never urged us to war, as mitt romney has done and rush limbaugh has done and countless other combat cowards have done and will continue to do. you don't give up the legal right to advocate combat if you're afraid of combat yourself. you don't give up your first

amendment right to advocate combat if you're afraid of combat yourself. but i for one believe you give up your moral right to advocate combat, to advocate war if you're afraid of war yourself. if you sat out the war of your era. like me. and mitt romney. okay. imagine the neighbor from hell. imagine somebody who blocks traffic on your street whenever he's home. and imagine that neighbor has secret service protection. and imagine he kind of looks like this. mitt romney thought he picked the perfect neighborhood in the part of southern california that always votes republican. richard nixon used to have a beach house in that area. and romney, who always -- already own a giant lakehouse in new hampshire, thought it would be the perfect location for a giant beach house, but the house romney bought is not giant enough and he wantss to more than triple its size and include a now famous big new garage complete with an elevator for

the cars. but after romney loses the presidential election, his secret service detail will disappear and his neighbors will only have to deal with another big, noisy construction project. joining me now are two of mitt romney's neighbors, the happily married couple randy clark and tom maddox. randy and tom, you have my sympat sympathies. i can imagine what it's like to have this kind of neighbor. and randy, as i've read, there's a possibility that if his construction is approved that he will be blocking your ocean view? >> it's true that we might lose some of our view. his architects met with us early on to talk about the project, but right now the project's on hold and obviously view is always important to coastal neighborhoods in san diego and la jolla, but the most important thing to us is that as a couple who have been together 29 years and who are in a loving, committed relationship and married in 2008, it's his stance

on the freedom to marry that really concerns us the most. >> tom, if you got a chance -- and i'm assuming you have not had a chance to chat up your new neighbor, what would you like to say to mitt romney? >> oh, gosh, we appreciate the opportunity to do that. actually, i think i'd want to just let him know as a neighbor, we live two doors up from him, that we look at our family no different than he and ann, that randy and i have been together in a committed relationship for 29 years. we had the opportunity to get married four year ago for the same reasons that he and ann did. we love each other, we want to have the opportunity to support and care for each other. we wanted to build a life together. grow old together. just like everyone else does that gets married. >> and randy, when the architect .

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okay. imagine the neighbor from hell. imagine somebody who blocks traffic on your street whenever he's home. and imagine that neighbor has secret service protection. and imagine he kind of looks like this. mitt romney thought he picked the perfect neighborhood in the part of southern california that always votes republican. richard nixon used to have a beach house in that area. and romney, who always -- already own a giant lakehouse in new hampshire, thought it would be the perfect location for a giant beach house, but the house romney bought is not giant enough and he wantss to more than triple its size and include a now famous big new garage complete with an elevator for the cars. but after romney loses the presidential election, his secret service detail will disappear and his neighbors will only have to deal with another big, noisy construction project. joining me now are two of mitt

romney's neighbors, the happily married couple randy clark and tom maddox. randy and tom, you have my sympat sympathies. i can imagine what it's like to have this kind of neighbor. and randy, as i've read, there's a possibility that if his construction is approved that he will be blocking your ocean view? >> it's true that we might lose some of our view. his architects met with us early on to talk about the project, but right now the project's on hold and obviously view is always important to coastal neighborhoods in san diego and la jolla, but the most important thing to us is that as a couple who have been together 29 years and who are in a loving, committed relationship and married in 2008, it's his stance on the freedom to marry that really concerns us the most. >> tom, if you got a chance -- and i'm assuming you have not had a chance to chat up your new neighbor, what would you like to say to mitt romney? >> oh, gosh, we appreciate the

opportunity to do that. actually, i think i'd want to just let him know as a neighbor, we live two doors up from him, that we look at our family no different than he and ann, that randy and i have been together in a committed relationship for 29 years. we had the opportunity to get married four year ago for the same reasons that he and ann did. we love each other, we want to have the opportunity to support and care for each other. we wanted to build a life together. grow old together. just like everyone else does that gets married. >> and randy, when the architect met with you, didn't he try to get you to sign away any objection to anything that they would build down the street? >> they did. they gave us a form to sign, and we didn't feel comfortable signing that. and they didn't force us on that issue. >> and i read in the article about this that mitt romney, when he goes for walks in the

neighborhood, has actually told kids on the beach that he's seen smoking pot to stop smoking pot. he looks like he's a candidate for neighborhood watch there. are the neighbors talking about this romney as local cop stuff? >> well, we do joke about it a bit. we're a pretty close-knit neighborhood. it's a special place. we understand why mitt and ann would want to live there. it's a very nice, quiet neighborhood, and they have a beautiful home, and we do joke about the policing from the romney household. >> and as far as -- i'm sorry. >> go ahead, tom. >> as far as the neighborhood goes, we understand the neighborhood's changed, that nothing's static that every neighborhood changes and evolves over time, but we just want to make sure that he understands that, like randy said, it's a very close knit group of neighbors that we watch out for each other and care for each other. >> and randy, i assume that you

don't have a problem with someone in his position living there, but you'd just like to kind of have the secret service and the romney family understand what a burden it can be for you? >> that's right. the secret service have been very accommodating. and they're doing their job, we understand. and they have done everything they can to make it as good for us as possible. so we don't have a complaint with the secret service at all. >> mitt romney's very reasonable new neighbors, randy clark and tom maddox. i hope you get a chance to meet him very soon. thank you both very much for joining me tonight. >> thank you very much. >> you're welcome. >> good night. >> you can have the last word online on our blog, the last word.msnbc.com. anti-democratic shenanigans, let's play "hardball." >> i'm chris matthews in